It was no surprise when BBC One's reinvention of the Alexandre Dumas classic found success in that slot in the spring of 2014, pulling in a decent-sized audience of around 5 million, for 10 weeks on the trot.

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Ever since, though, The Musketeers has felt like a strangely low priority for BBC schedulers, particularly given its early success.

Its second series launched on January 2, 2015 – a Friday, but the shift didn't feel so odd over that strange post-Christmas period when no-one's quite sure what day it is anyway.

BBC/Dusan Martincek

It was when the show failed to revert back to its Sunday slot (it aired on Friday nights well into the March) that things felt amiss. Even more so when the series was denied a full, uninterrupted run, being pulled from the schedules more than once for live sport.

When The Musketeers returned for its third and final series in 2016, it arrived much later in the year – May – and found itself in another new slot. On Saturday nights.

Fans could at least take comfort in their family show being restored to a weekend slot. But this was to be the beginning of a rough ride, as over the next two months the series was bounced around the schedules as never before.

It began with an unavoidable and understandable move – BBC One made a last-minute change to its Saturday, June 4 schedules in the wake of the sad death of Muhammad Ali, slotting in special commemorative film The Greatest.

Episode 3.2 of The Musketeers was pushed back a week to Saturday, June 11. Fair enough. No argument.

BBC/Dusan Martincek

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But then the third episode didn't air the following Saturday (the 18th). To make way for a Euro 2016 group match, the BBC pushed it to the following Monday at 9pm.

Episode four reverted back to a Saturday slot, airing at 8.30pm on June 25. But the next week, more football – the Euro 2016 quarter-final – saw episode five transmit on a Sunday (July 3). The show was, at least, back where it belonged.

Next came a brief but blissful period of consistency: from July 9th-30th, episodes six through nine of The Musketeers aired on consecutive Saturdays, all at 8.30pm. Vive la France!

The schedulers, though, plan to strike one final blow. Since the Olympics will be dominating BBC One on Saturday, August 6, the final ever episode of The Musketeers is being dropped back in a Monday slot. GAAAAAAAAH.

And fans will still be catching their breath, when – a mere two days later – the epic series closer goes out at 9pm on August 1.

No fixed time-slot, airing 10 episodes on three different days... All year, The Musketeers has felt like it's adrift, and its shoddy treatment is made all the worse for the fact that this final series has been its best yet.

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New showrunners Simon Allen and Simon J Ashford have injected the show with a fresh energy, refusing to rest on their laurels or lazily replicate the efforts of their predecessors.

The Musketeers was still a ripping romp, but in 2016 it dared to go a little darker and delve a little deeper – with Athos (Tom Burke) and company plagued by a truly unsettling menace in the sinister Grimaud (Matthew McNulty).

BBC/Dusan Martincek

Its final two episodes, meanwhile, are among its very best, with huge dramatic reveals and pay-offs for fans who've been following the show these past 3 years.

It's credit to those fans that The Musketeers has retained decent overnight ratings – mostly above the 2 million mark, with a series peak of 2.8m. That's particularly admirable given that the third series aired in overseas territories months ago – and so was readily "available" online if you knew where to look.

BBC/Dusan Martincek

Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, co-showrunner Simon Allen said: "The show's been promoted a little, but third series – particularly final series – don't often get a huge amount of promotional support.

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"We've faced far greater opposition than a lot of other shows and we've faced continual schedule changes. And yet, apart from one episode which was up against the England match, we've held the same audience.

"So the four things that we've been up against is: 1) being a third series and not having that promotional lift, 2) schedule changes, 3) massive competition with the football and Britain's Got Talent, and 4) the fact that anyone who wanted to watch it could watch it very easily online, months before it went out on BBC One.

"And yet it still, more or less, found its audience – so I think that's a phenomenal achievement."

It's impressive, remarkable even, that The Musketeers has done so well, despite everything. But it's also a testament to the quality and pulling power of a terrific show – one that's not been given a fair shot.

The Musketeers continues on Saturday (July 30) at 8.30pm, with the final ever episode following on Monday (August 1) at 9pm.

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